Heard an interesting thing about horse statues the other day. Apparently if a horse statue has a soldier/rider on its back, and the horse is rearing up on it's hind legs, that's a sign that the rider died in battle.

Yes I've heard that before too. And if one leg is in the air the rider was wounded in battle. Apparently. Wiki says there is little evidence to support this belief but for our purposes that's unimportant, as we are in the business of symbols and beliefs.